Bipolar Disorder & Why Self-Care Matters

With bipolar treatment, the importance of self-care cannot be understated. Curating my own self-care plan—and putting it into action—helps me manage this chronic, brain-based condition.

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Hello, this is Melody Moezzi with bp Magazine’s bphope vlog, and today I’m talking about self-care—what it is, what it isn’t, and how it can help you.

What Is Self-Care, Anyway?

Self-care is basically what it sounds like: care for oneself. It is anything you do to keep yourself well, whether that’s emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, physically, professionally—whatever you do in your life that helps keep you well. It’s incredibly important for everybody, but when you have a chronic condition like bipolar disorder, it becomes all the more important. What I recommend is having a self-care plan.

Self-Care Is NOT Selfish.

It’s really important to note up front that this is not a “Western” concept. Many times, please have said to me, dismissively, “Oh, self-care, that’s just an American thing, and it’s actually selfish!” No, it’s not “just an American thing”—and even if it were, there are a lot of great American things, so that’s fine.

Keeping oneself well is entrenched in a lot of different cultures in terms of how we care for ourselves—our bodies, our minds, and our souls. So, prayer, for example, is a practice that a lot of people have used, throughout history, to look after themselves. Meditation is also something that, throughout history, a lot of people have used, and it has helped them. Personally, meditation is on my self-care plan/list.

Creating a Self-Care Plan or List

There are some self-care practices that are going to be on your list but aren’t going to be on someone else’s.

For example, I love driving. It calms me down; it’s how I think. But a good amount of people don’t like driving, and some even have panic attacks while they’re driving—so taking a drive would not be on their list.

Also, I love nature documentaries. And I love David Attenborough’s voice, something about the way he speaks just calms me down. There are certain voices like that. Garrison Keillor is another one of those, for me. Also on my self-care list are listening to music, reading, and sewing.

These strategies work for me. So my self-care plan has a long list of activities. But what works for one person may not work for the next, so each plan or list is going to be different for everyone.

Let’s Make a List of Self-Care Strategies Together!

Here’s what I’m thinking: We can all put our lists together in the comments section below to come up with a giant, really big list that hopefully will be useful to a lot of other people.

So, add a comment with whatever self-care strategies you feel comfortable sharing, and we’ll put that list together and post it at some point.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Until next time, take care. I’m out!

Learn more:
Bipolar & Sugar—How We Unintentionally Sabotage Our Stability
Bipolar Disorder, Creativity, & Flights of Ideas

CREDITS: All A/V (videography, audio, etc.) courtesy of Matthew Lenard.

Originally posted November 2, 2016